My aunts boyfriend gave this to me tonight saying that it had been in his closet for the past 20 or so years and he wanted someone who would use it to have it. He had no idea what it was or what it shot and my google fu has been weak tonight so any information would be useful.

Condition: Almost everywhere has light rust spots, lots of scuffs on the stock and is very dirty but the riffling is sharp. The rear site says "Williams" on it.

What am I missing ? Perhaps it is a type 99 in 7.7mm - The photos do not show all that clear on my puter- Easy to tell difference, T -38 has rear tangs as separate pieces, T-99 has tangs as part of receiver and lower plate like a mauser or springfield --
my ha-penny --

What am I missing ? Perhaps it is a type 99 in 7.7mm - The photos do not show all that clear on my puter- Easy to tell difference, T -38 has rear tangs as separate pieces, T-99 has tangs as part of receiver and lower plate like a mauser or springfield --
my ha-penny --

The type 99 also has a hinged floorplate and there are no safetys with a protruding boob nipple on type 99 rifles either. These pictures are even more obvious...
Type 38 safetyType 38 rifleType 99 rifle

Yes! Most of us don't speak Japanese; so the pictures tell the story. There are a couple of websites with lots of Japanese rifle pictures. Another has detailed list of the markings on their guns and bayonets. The only way his rifle is likely to use anything other than 6.5mm ammo is if he's got a rebarreled sporter. I used to see replacement Arisaka barrels in the gun magazines many years ago...

2 gas vent holes are a dead giveaway for a 38, not to mention other cues. my 38 carbine doesn't have the "boob nipple" but the rest of it is deadnuts type 38. i have a 99 as well and love both of them. if you get a decent one they're very accurate, pleasant shooting rifles. even 7.7 doesn't beat you up too bad, although i haven't really messed with handloads yet.

not "funny".... its by design. the Japanese adopted a subset of Chinese pictogram characters for their own use, probably about the 5th-6th century AD. they complement these with syllabic characters (kana).

Earlier guns also employ the use of 2 gas ports, however they can be distinguished other ways. Type 30 uses a hooked safety, and the very much rarer Type 35 uses a knobbed hook safety and has protector wings on the rear sight much like a No.1 MK3

Basic ways to tell, or you can read the moonspeak

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Quote:

Originally Posted by AJAX22

Anti gun BS...

Finger print recognition is one more thing that keeps your killamajig from performing its killimafunction

2 gas vent holes are a dead giveaway for a 38, not to mention other cues. my 38 carbine doesn't have the "boob nipple" but the rest of it is deadnuts type 38. i have a 99 as well and love both of them. if you get a decent one they're very accurate, pleasant shooting rifles. even 7.7 doesn't beat you up too bad, although i haven't really messed with handloads yet.

I've seen several types of safetys on the type 38, but never a boob nipple on a type 99 rifle.

in that kind f condition it could be worth even more.... All the Stg/MP44's I have seen and shot were well used... they were functional but had a lot of wear...

The Friggen thing looke almost as good as one of the new Knockoffs (But it had gravitas & history vibes oozing & dripping off of it like the stuff under the street in the Gostbuster movies) , THE fURNITURE WAS Awsome looking , Dig the Thread up (Had things like "I just creamed my trausers" and "Best one I have ever seen" ...

The "boob nipple" or Long Tang on the the T38 safety is only found on early T38s. Probably produced around WWI era till the early 20s.

There big nipples and then smaller nipples adopted in the 20s or 30s. Type 38 safetys began to look just like the common type 99 versions by the middle of WW2; but even then, you can still notice a slight difference.

I have some type 99 safetys in my parts box. It illustrates just how the Japanese cut corners in workmanship and details as the war raged on...

So I went to Imbert and Smithers and they looked down the barrel and said that it's 6.5 Jap and they didn't have any ammo for it. They also said that the gun was inherently unsafe to shoot because it has been sporterized i.e. they didn't know what else had been done to it.

I'm kinda unsatisfied after hearing what you all had to say but mostly because I just want to shoot it.

That's odd that they said it was "inherently unsafe" but didn't offer an explanation. Did they mention if the parts were mismatched?
I have some 6.5 both handloads and factory loads if you are interested. We could meet at Los Altos Rifle range if you are interested.

I have to say, it's one of the nicer Sporterized rifles that I have seen on here for awhile.

That's odd that they said it was "inherently unsafe" but didn't offer an explanation.

They said that since it had been sporterized that they didn't know what else had been done to it. I was hoping to have them do something (I'm a gunsmithing newb so I have no idea what this would be) to tell me what it was chambered in as some on here said it could have been rechambered or rebarreled and also something to tell me if it was safe or not.

Though they did say the Chrysanthemum and the clean cross checkered safety made it something that collectors looked for...if they hadn't changed the stock out.

Thank you for the offer that I may take you up on sometime if I can ever get some time off work.

They said that since it had been sporterized that they didn't know what else had been done to it. I was hoping to have them do something (I'm a gunsmithing newb so I have no idea what this would be) to tell me what it was chambered in as some on here said it could have been rechambered or rebarreled and also something to tell me if it was safe or not.

Though they did say the Chrysanthemum and the clean cross checkered safety made it something that collectors looked for...if they hadn't changed the stock out.

Thank you for the offer that I may take you up on sometime if I can ever get some time off work.

--Matt

Sporterizing an Arisaka doesn't make it dangerous by itself! Find somebody to do a chamber cast and make a dummy cartridge. You can compare that to the few other live rounds that will function in a type 38 rifle.

The other method is to see if 6.5 Japanese ammo will chamber in the rifle. If so, you can mount the rifle to an old tire and test fire it with about 20 feet of string just like the rednecks do on YouTube...

Jeeeze. The lawyers have spoken to their gunsmith. The Arisaka action is one of the stoutest around. I doubt very much he was even a gunsmith at all. I have heard horror stories about a pseudo gunsmith there. I would look at it myself if you like. I am no gunsmith but I can tell when something is unsafe. I have 3 Arisakas we could look at that are safe and compare the actions and lockup.

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